Why it works: Sugar and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut off the rind from the ham.
Fry the ham
Heat a skillet over high heat and fry the ham for 1 minute on each side.
Move the ham to a cooler part of the stove and fry for 10 minutes on each side.
Sprinkle the ham with 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar after the last turn.
Make the gravy and serve
Place the ham on a platter.
In the skillet, add ⅔ cup of milk, stir to mix in the sediment, and bring to a boil.
Pour the milk gravy over the ham.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Ham + milktop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,089 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Ham + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- Provides the main meat, which browns in the pan and becomes firm and savory as it cooks.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.
- Milk
- Mixes with the pan sediment to form a simple gravy with a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Moving the ham to a cooler part of the stove. Sugar darkens quickly at high heat, so the ham is held at a gentler heat for the long fry to cook through and brown without scorching.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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